STRASBOURG, October 25-26-27, the weekend the clocks change. A weekend to celebrate vin vivant, vin libre, natural wine or whatever you want to call it.

The weekend when we are off to ferment and REBOOT the website. 

But to leave you with the last weekend in October – Friday evening there is screening of Jonathan Nossiter’s MONDOVINO  at the Cosmos cinema. Before the film  six Alsace wine domains (see poster below) and René Sens cidres will be pouring a selection  of their cuveés. On the food front, delicious small plates will be available all evening from the Bardu kitchen.

This year is the 20th anniversary of Mondovino which was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It was the first documentary to be entered for the Palme d’Or – quite a tag. Jean-Pierre Frick will introduce the film and lead a discussion/questions session after the screening. Jean-Pierre and Jonathan Nossiter have collaborated on various projects during the years so its a bonus to have Jean-Pierre participate in this event.

Poster by Mona Neilson from the Back in Alsace Collective.

 

 

 

PHARE ô VINS #3

On the Saturday and Sunday a wine tasting event is organised to celebrate the current EARTH THEME at the Phare Citadelle. This is the third edition of Phare ô Vins which is now established as an annual event in Strasbourg.

Eclectic food and eclectic music will resonate with the wines during the weekend. The attitude is very much food/music/wine and access details are on the poster.

Domaines present:

  • Vincent Wallard (Loire)
  • Jean Derrien (Loire)
  • Philippe Chevarin (Loire)
  • La Sauvagère (Loire)
  • Domaine de la Crechette (Loire)
  • Yohann Moreaux (Loire
  • Stéphane Cyran (Lorraine)
  • Bruno Vacon (Lorraine)
  • Olivier Boulin (Jura)
  • raisins sauvages (Alsace)
  • Maxime Stolz (Alsace)
  • Arun Rahimi (Alsace)
  • Clement and Sylvain Goepp (Alsace)
  • Louis Maurer (Alsace)
  • Leonard Dietrich (Alsace)
  • Cidre Renés-Sens (Alsace)
  • Domaine du Bon Pas (Beaujolais)
  • Team Sud BOJO (Beaujolais)
  • Nika (Géorgie)
  • Domaine du Bois Perdu (Ardèche)
  • Domaine du  Bois Dieu (Bourgogne)
  • Domaine du Bois Masset (Sud-Ouest)
  • Pascal Treichler (Allemagne)

 

 

 

– the project –

The Back In Alsace Project is now focused on one topic; Alsace natural wine and the associated ecosystem. As with any “old world” wine region, there are plenty of issues, degrees of bull-shit, and bad attitudes stuck in the industrial agricultural recent past. We will be giving all that sort of stuff a body swerve as we firmly focus on all that vibrant, forward looking, energy that is currently buzzing in the region.

We are big supporters of producers who practice organic or biodynamic husbandry in the vineyards. Vigneron.nes who are looking after the earth. In fact, that is the foundation of our interest. And we love winemakers that carry this attitude through to techniques in the cellar; with natural fermentations, the use of traditional and non-traumatising physical methods, and a healthy disrespect for the use of additives. These are the foundations that allow winemakers the opportunity to express a sense of terroir, a sense of wine that comes from a place, from a time with the input of human skills and attitudes. With a lot of attitude. That takes us into the space of NATURAL WINE, VIN LIBRE, VIN VIVANT.

And there is more to it than that, as the Back in Alsace Project is interested in the community around natural wine; the winemakers, the producer associations, the retail outlets, the wine bars and restaurants, the importers, the distributors, the journalists, the authors, the publishers, the barrel makers, the artists doing labels and posters, the wine fairs and salons, and most importantly all the workers involved in making this all whirr and rattle along. And, of course the humble masses who buy and drink the stuff.

 

Three shades of RED from Lucas Rieffel – captured by Mona Neilson